Bringing Face-to-Face Engagement to Online Classes

The trend to shift courses online is accelerating. Some students are gravitating toward asynchronous online classes; however, many still prefer in-person educational experiences. These students often are less engaged when taking online courses, and their willingness to pay for online courses is frequently less than for in-person courses. There is a need to bridge the gaps between online and traditional class delivery formats. This paper reports on a high-presence online teaching method that approximates the in-person experience by affording face-to-face conversations, real-time interaction, and features the instructor placed front-and-center with the lecture material. The paper reports a case study test of this method as applied to a graduate process reengineering course. Students in the course report that the method provides better student-instructor interaction and overall engagement than they expect from in-person classes. Students also report that the method approximates what they expect from in-person courses regarding the quality of interactions they have with their classmates.